| The Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA) experiment was designed to detect astrophysical neutrinos with energy greater than 1018 eV. It uses a cluster of antennas hanging from a balloon over Antarctica to look for radio signals from neutrino-induced particle showers in the ice. Neutrinos can also indirectly cause particle showers, one example being if the charged lepton produced in a charged current interaction experiences hard energy losses through bremsstrahlung and photonuclear interactions. One of the Monte Carlo simulations developed to determine the aperture of ANITA's 2006-2007 flight focuses on these secondary showers. Inclusion of secondary showers increases the expected aperture by allowing a neutrino to be detected even if the primary shower is out of view. Because the spatial distribution of secondary showers depends on a particle's cross section, the different arrival times of the radio pulses from the showers along a particle track can indicate the neutrino energy, neutrino flavor, and photonuclear cross section. |
